Mitchell House

Mitchell House Admin

Headmaster's Message

Welcome to our webpage. We are really proud of our school and I am confident that after you have read our page you will understand why.

2018 has been a year of considerable growth and development for Mitchell House. The decision to roll out three classes for each of preparatory grades is now in its third year. Despite the vagaries of our economic environment more and more parents are seeing value for money in our educational offering. This growth in numbers has allowed us to build a new Nutrition Centre (a lovely kitchen and dining room complex) and arguably the best Early Childhood Development Centre in South Africa. This bold initiative arises out of our conviction that there is huge value in providing stimulation for our youngsters and in taking advantage of the window of opportunity for language acquisition in the years 3 to 10. Each of our classes from Grade 000 to Grade 0 will have a teacher who can speak the language of learning and teaching at Mitchell House (English) as well as another who can speak an indigenous language.

Providing for the needs of pupils who will work in the 21st Century is no easy undertaking. We aim to teach the skills that most agree are necessary for success in this century: communication, creativity, collaboration and critical thinking. We do this through attention to core knowledge within subjects but also by undertaking rich tasks that require a more integrated approach to learning. Pupils will be asked to collaborate on two projects a year and cooperate in understanding and solving real problems. IPads have been a feature of the College for several years now (with all the advantages of ebooks) and in 2019 our Grade 8s will start with laptops. We write the IEB matriculation in November each year, a qualification that has proven its superiority in preparing our young men and women for tertiary education. We have enjoyed excellent results since our first cohort in 2012 and we can confidently say that the least we offer is the best matric pass your child can achieve. Relatively small classes and well-qualified teachers play to our advantage, as does our beautiful campus purpose built for the task. We ensure that our high-fliers fly high but we also pay individual attention to the weakest and the middle of the range student, our subject choice has recently been enhanced by the addition of Sepedi, History and Information Technology as full electives for Matriculation.

Ours is a liberal education and so we aim to produce citizens who are free thinkers. We teach them to be skeptical of received knowledge and to question authority (in a courteous and courageous way). We want to inculcate good values that will stand the test of time. We want our pupils to develop self-discipline and we try to create opportunities for this development to take place. Thus, being in one of our three choirs or performing reliably backstage is as important as being in the First XI Soccer team or in the limelight. We tour with both our sports teams and our choirs. We offer a wide range of clubs and societies to whet our learners' appetite for the rich banquet of life.

One of our most distinctive features is the Enrichment Centre, a school within a school for significantly disabled children. These 24 children who are divided into three classes of eight, provide the most extraordinary example of diversity in our school. They are included wherever they can flourish and the mainstream children learn as much from them as they do from the mainstream. Compassion and empathy is an every day habit at Mitchell House and these traits become features of what our best alumni exhibit. So, too, our sense of community is enhanced by a wide range of outreach programmes that our learners and staff involve themselves with, ranging from scholarships to our school, computer upskilling, Summer Maths and Science camps and raising funds for worthy causes.

Our sports programme is the envy of many schools. We have had annual provincial representation in all the sports we offer and in 2018 we produced the captain of the South African Schools Netball team. We offer all the most popular codes and we have the facilities to progress talent.

We believe that happy and stimulated scholars are the best advertisement for a school. They produce happy parents and happy parents do our marketing for us. But don't just trust us: In 2018 we received Full Accreditation from both Umalusi and the Independent Quality Assurance Agency.

Enjoy the tour!

About Us

Our Mission
With the help of Almighty God and founded on the high ideals of English Christian Culture, Mitchell House strives to help its learners to develop to the best of their ability, and guide their growing minds towards high ideals.

Our Vision
Underpinned by the school's core values: striving for excellence, personal integrity, respect for ourselves and others, discipline and responsibility, kindness and empathy: Mitchell House is committed to maintaining itself as an educational centre of excellence.